PSE-SoftwareFirewall Palo Alto Networks Systems Engineer (PSE): Software Firewall Professional Question and Answers

The VM-Series plugin supports integration with multiple public cloud platforms, including:

Amazon Web Services (AWS):The VM-Series firewalls can be deployed in AWS to provide comprehensive security for cloud applications and data, leveraging AWS's native services and integration capabilities.

Azure:The VM-Series firewalls also integrate with Microsoft Azure, offering advanced security features and policies for applications and data hosted in Azure's cloud environment.

References:

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series on AWS: VM-Series on AWS

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series on Azure: VM-Series on Azure

ï‚·Creating a New Virtual Switch:

By creating a new virtual switch, you can segment the network within the ESXi environment. The VM-Series firewall can then be used to provide security controls between these virtual switches using virtual wire mode.

VM-Series Auto Scaling:

The VM-Series firewalls are designed to integrate with cloud environments like AWS and support auto-scaling. This allows for the deployment of a single auto-scaling group (ASG) of VM-Series firewalls to secure inbound traffic from the internet to AWS application workloads.

To integrate a Palo Alto Networks VM-Series firewall with Azure Orchestration, an API Key is required. The API Key is used to authenticate and authorize the firewall to interact with Azure services, enabling automated management and orchestration of security policies and configurations.

References:

Palo Alto Networks Integration with Azure: Azure Integration

Azure API Management:Azure API Key

In a CN-Series (Cloud Native) environment, protecting communications between Docker containers is crucial. CN-Series firewalls are designed to provide advanced firewalling capabilities within containerized environments:

Firewalling: The CN-Series firewall provides Layer 7 visibility, allowing for application-layer security policies and protections. It ensures that all inter-container traffic is inspected, filtered, and secured according to the defined security policies. This includes blocking malicious traffic, preventing unauthorized access, and providing micro-segmentation within the Kubernetes clusters.

Visibility into application-level cluster traffic:

VM-Series firewalls and hardware firewalls that are external to the Kubernetes cluster lack the necessary visibility into the traffic and communications occurring at the application level within the cluster. This limitation impedes their ability to effectively protect containerized workloads.

The number of required flex credits for a VM-Series firewall primarily depends on the vCPU allocation. Flex credits are used to license VM-Series firewalls, and the number of credits required is determined by the number of virtual CPUs (vCPUs) allocated to the firewall. Higher vCPU allocations provide greater performance capabilities and thus require more flex credits.

References:

Palo Alto Networks Licensing Guide: VM-Series Licensing

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series Datasheet: VM-Series Datasheet

Dynamic address groups in Palo Alto Networks firewalls provide flexibility by allowing network resources to be added without requiring changes to existing policies and rules:

Dynamic address group: These groups automatically update based on tags and attributes assigned to network objects. When new resources are added with the appropriate tags, they are dynamically included in the address group, and the associated policies automatically apply to them without manual intervention.

SSL Inbound Inspection allows VM-Series firewalls to decrypt, inspect, and re-encrypt SSL/TLS traffic coming into the network. This capability enables the firewall to gain visibility into encrypted communication and prevent attacks that exploit known web server vulnerabilities, even when the traffic is encrypted. By inspecting the decrypted traffic, the firewall can apply security policies to detect and block malicious activity.

References:

Palo Alto Networks SSL Decryption Guide: SSL Decryption

Palo Alto Networks SSL Inbound Inspection Documentation: SSL Inbound Inspection

To configure a default route to an internet router, you need to perform the following steps:

Select Network > Virtual Router, then select the default link to open the Virtual Router dialog.

Select the Static Routes tab, then click Add to create a new static route.

These steps ensure that the default route is correctly added to the virtual router configuration, allowing traffic to be directed to the appropriate internet gateway.

References:

Palo Alto Networks Configuration Guide: Configuring Default Route

Palo Alto Networks Virtual Router Configuration: Virtual Router

When implementing active-active high availability (HA), a floating IP address must be configured to allow the HA pair to share a single IP address that may be used as the network's gateway IP address. This floating IP address ensures that either of the active-active firewalls can assume control of the traffic without interruption in case of a failover.

References:

Palo Alto Networks High Availability Guide: Active-Active HA Configuration

Palo Alto Networks HA Configuration: HA Configuration

CN-Series for DevOps deployments:

The CN-Series firewall is specifically designed to secure containerized environments and is ideal for protecting extensive DevOps deployments. It integrates seamlessly with Kubernetes and other container orchestration platforms, providing the necessary security controls for DevOps processes.

ï‚·Enabling Threat Prevention on Palo Alto Networks firewalls provides comprehensive protection against inbound threats by inspecting traffic for exploits, malware, and other malicious activities.

ï‚·Reference: The Threat Prevention service is detailed in the PAN-OS documentation, highlighting its role in securing inbound traffic by leveraging various threat detection and prevention techniques.

ï‚·Palo Alto Networks Threat Prevention Documentation

The CN-Series firewalls are specifically designed to secure Kubernetes and containerized environments, making them ideal for protecting microservices-based applications. They provide network security by integrating directly with the container orchestration platform.

ï‚·Registering an Authorization Code:

An orchestration system can automate the registration of authorization codes, which is a critical step in licensing the VM-Series firewall. This process involves submitting the code to Palo Alto Networks to activate the license.

Independent Upgrade:

The VM-Series plugin can be upgraded independently of the PAN-OS version. This allows for flexibility in maintaining and enhancing the plugin without the need for a complete PAN-OS upgrade.